Pendulum Waves

This week’s entry in the “Wow, the Internet is Awesome!” file:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkdfJ9PkRQ

These pendula of staggered lengths are set swinging, and the result is fascinating.  At first, the weights seem to trace out sine waves, but they quickly start to cycle through a wide range of behaviors.

At times the pendula appear highly organized, and at times almost chaotic, as they cycle through various patterns.  Amazingly, the weights eventually return to their initial state!

A really beautiful mathematical demonstration.

Uneven Haircuts

Barbers strike me as a practical lot.  Which makes this pricing structure seem especially strange to me.

barber shop

I mean, isn’t a kid going to have less overall hair than an adult?  I understand that an adult head may have less coverage percentage-wise, but the larger head-radius more than makes up for the lower proportion of hair.  I’ve got to believe that the price-per-hair is considerably higher for a child than an adult under this pricing system.

Of course, I would not be so naive as to expect understandable pricing structures from hair stylists.

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Math Photo: Windowsill Contours

I have an adjustable screen for my window, the kind you expand horizontally to fill up the windowsill.  It’s somewhat effective at keeping bugs out of the house.

When it’s not opened all the way up, the two layers of screen overlap in the middle.  Depending on the angle you are looking from, you can see some cool images.

At this angle, for example, I see a contour map of a function of several variables.

I wish I understood where the curves come from!

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